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Kerry Properties is offering a total discount of 15.8 per cent, including a stamp duty subsidy worth as much as 8.5 per cent of the listed price, to bolster the sale of its residential project, The Summa, in Sai Ying Pun.

With the discount, the developer said the average price of the first 50 units at the 168-unit project was HK$22,989 per square foot.

Kerry Properties executive director Chu Ip-pui described the discounted price as a "happy price" for homebuyers.

The minimum price of a 756 sqft unit on the 10th floor is HK$15.24 million after deducting all discounts, compared with a listed price of HK$17.92 million.

"The launch price has taken reference from Kerry's luxury projects because there's no new supply in the area," Chu said.

Based on the discounted prices, he expected the first batch of 50 units could pull in about HK$1 billion if all of them were sold.

Chu rejected suggestions that the lower-price strategy for The Summa was aimed to fend off competition from a heavily discounted project by Cheung Kong in Tin Hau, saying the two projects targeted different buyers.

Kerry Real Estate Agency marketing director Semy Ng Mai-shan said The Summa was close to completion, with flats to be delivered to buyers in March or April.

On Thursday, Cheung Kong offered the first 50 units at its Diva project, due to be offered for sale next week, at an average of HK$22,514 per square foot. With a maximum discount of 25 per cent, the average price will come to HK$16,886 per square foot. The project is expected to be completed in 2015.

Chu said he hoped sales of The Summa could kick off next week.

Asked whether Kerry Properties would bid in the MTR Corp's tendering of a residential site near the Ting Wing Light Rail stop in Tin Shui Wai, Chu said the company was still studying the tender document.

"The most attractive aspect of the tendering this time is no requirement for a specific land premium and no profit-sharing with MTR Corp," he said. "It marks a significant change in the rules of game. It is a positive change."

The tender will close on January 21 and the site will yield a gross floor area of 982,280 sqft, or 1,500 units.

Kerry Properties is part of the Kerry Group, which also controls SCMP Group, publisher of the South China Morning Post.